


hold me close and don’t let go

by Vilchen



Series: My Yoi Spooky Week 2019 fics [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: A little angsty?, Day three: night and death, Don’t copy to another site, Drabble, M/M, Underworld, YOI Spooky Week, as always, but they’re very in love, grim reaper!yuuri, immortal!Victor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 19:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21203225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vilchen/pseuds/Vilchen
Summary: Floating down the river with no intention whatsoever, Victor finds a single light reflecting on the waves. Sad, brown eyes lock onto him, and Victor feels something warm blossom in his chest.His angel.





	hold me close and don’t let go

It's very cold, Victor notes as he floats leisurely down the gray, smudgy river of the underworld, stretching endlessly in both ends. He should have brought a jacket.

"—No, no..."

"Please, stop—"

"...why..."

There are people wailing by the river banks, pale, ghastly creatures trying to throw themselves in the river, only to find themselves thrown back on land and held in place, never quite reaching the dark waters.

Victor can’t quite find it in him to care—everything is muted, toned down to background noise and the only thing that’s real at this moment is the cold waves lapping at him and the never changing current guiding him away.

Away from what, he doesn’t know. Maybe it’s guiding him to something for once.

An old gondola can be seen in the distance making its way towards him, fighting the current with no effort at all, yet still parting the waters. A lantern hangs from the ornamental stem and serves as the only light source in sight, drawing the attention of every semi-living creature in a mile's radius.

As it comes closer Victor can see the smooth sides and the half-formed hands clamoring to find anything to hold onto only to come up empty and get torn away by the current, mouths open in soundless screams of anguish.

The man standing at the bow is swathed in dark, heavy robes and staring mutely ahead, occasionally blinking but otherwise motionless. He would fit right in at the cemetery, guarding over the graves along with the other cold, granite statues of old. Even with the toned perception of his surroundings Victor can feel something warm spreading in his chest at the sight of him.

A paddle hits his chest and halts him from floating away with the current, and big, sorrowful brown eyes lock onto him.

"Found you," Yuuri says. "Now let’s get you back where you belong, Vitya."

And just like that, the paddle presses him down underneath the surface, enveloping him in a cold sphere of nothingness. The last thing Victor sees before he closes his eyes and lets the water fill him up from the inside is the light of a lantern hanging above his head.

* * *

His eyelid's flutter as they open and are greeted with the sight of pale, fluorescent lights glaring down at him from what he realizes must be a hospital room ceiling. An IV-drip is connected to his arm, and the deep breath he tries to take confirms that everything hurts like a bitch.

Yuuri stands in the darkest corner of the room with his lantern on the floor, arms crossed and brows wrinkled as he stares at what Victor assumes must be a pretty pathetic sight, as he lies useless in the hospital bed like a dead fish.

"It’s your own fault."

Instead of those heavy robes he wore before, he’s now in well fitted dark jeans and a loose black and white sweater falling just short of his knuckles, revealing a healthy dose of collar bone and—probably intentionally—making him look unfairly beautiful. He knows Victor can’t resist that soft, huggable look.

"And seriously, a car crash?" Yuuri bristles, smoothly crossing the line between annoyed and angry as expertly as Yakov once did, back in the day when Yuuri didn’t need to carry that blasted lantern around wherever he went and Victor didn’t make monthly visits to the underworld.

"Spending all of my time in the underworld is bad enough without having to worry about you as well!"

"I’m immortal, darling; you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried," Victor protests, wincing as tries to sit up. Yuuri is probably keeping the nurses away until he finishes his tirade, so he doesn’t comment on the pain spreading along his leg. He’ll get some painkillers later.

"We don’t know that!" Yuuri says, swallowing around the lump in his throat. "Not if you keep distracting me from work. I gave Death a thousand years of servitude for your immortality—he could take it back anytime if he thinks you distract me from work and the next time you go down that river I won’t be able to fish you up!"

Tears are gathering in his eyes now, but he turns away. A nurse comes in the door and immediately starts fretting over him, unaware of Yuuri's presence and forcing Victor to keep his mouth shut unless he wants to have an uncomfortable conversation with a psychiatrist later.

They leave him with instructions to push the button if there’s anything he needs before they rush to the next patient, leaving Victor and Yuuri in loaded silence.

"I’m sorry."

Yuuri looks up at him, red faced and wide eyed as Victor pats the side of the bed. He comes, if somewhat reluctantly, and Victor takes his hand in his as soon as he’s in reach, thumbing at the golden metal around his ring finger.

"I miss you," he says, and lifts Yuuri's hand to his mouth. "Life isn’t beautiful without you there, angel."

Yuuri's mouth twists at the corner. "I’m not sure 'angel' is the word I'd use, Vitya."

"Always to me."

They sit like that for a while, ten, maybe fifteen minutes—it’s been over a century since they got to spend this much time in the same room together, and Victor is afraid to do anything but breathe in case the moment ends. He can feel the drugs making him drowsy already.

"I’m always with you, Vitya, you know that," Yuuri whispers and presses his lips to Victor's forehead. "Just a few more centuries, and we'll have the rest of our lives together."

"I’m holding you to that," he mumbles.

Yuuri gets up—Victor wants to hold onto him, but his grip on Yuuri's hand has slackened and it takes no force for him to slip away—and picks up his lantern. Time to go then.

"See you soon, Vitya."

And then he’s gone. The room feels duller now that he’s alone, but that might just be the drugs. Victor lays back and closes his eyes—maybe these next hundred years will pass faster than those before, he thinks. And then he sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Find me on tumblr as Vilchen, and feel free to yell(gently) at me in the comments :)


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